Day 2--It's official in China

Sorry pictures won't upload...maybe tomorrow...

Today was a tough day.  Olivia slept well, she got up at around 8 or so and we had to be ready to go at 9:30.  So, we all went for breakfast and because it was so crowded at the regular restaurant, they “upgraded” us to the 30^th floor restaurant…quite a view from the top!  We went back to the civil affairs office to complete the adoption paperwork, where she started to cry again.  She continued crying softly throughout the meeting, but according to China, everything is official and we are her parents. The rest of the time here is applying for a passport and getting her visa to return to the US. 

We had the afternoon off, so we came back to the hotel for lunch and a rest.  Olivia ate a nice lunch (she didn’t eat much for dinner or breakfast) and then said she was tired so we put her down for a nap.  Scott and Bryce went to workout and Olivia got up and started to cry again.  She basically cried all afternoon.  Not a screaming and kicking cry (like she did the first day), but more of a long whimper with lots of tears.  We tried everything to get her to stop, but to no avail… We knew that we were making progress because she wanted Nanette to hold her, but would not even let Scott touch her.  We took her out for a walk and she had a hard time with everything. After dinner, we were sitting in the room and Scott was being extremely silly trying to count in Chinese with her and finally got her to laugh and smile.  She even said some words, counted to 10 in English and Chinese and sat in his lap (she didn’t want to even hold his hand today).  We then ended the night with a shower and a game of bop the balloon, which she played and looked like she was having fun.  God is so gracious to allow us to get a glimpse of her sweet personality at the end of a grueling emotional day!

Family worship time: Each night at home we have a time as a family where we read the bible, pray, and talk about the blessings in our lives.  Each child is expected to say one blessing that they received and one blessing that they did for someone else.  When we were doing that last night, Olivia was having a hard time and upset (as expected).  The amazing thing about this is that she received a huge blessing that day and didn’t even know it.  She got a mom, dad, 2 brothers and a sister that day…but was very upset and sad.  We constantly tell the children that, “we are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others.”  That day, Olivia was blessed by getting a family, but she blessed us all by coming into our family…and she didn’t even know it! Isn’t that a picture of each of our lives every day?  God blesses us and we often gripe and complain; yet He still does it and we often don’t even recognize it.  Adoption is simply a picture of the Gospel, continually reminding us of our relationship with the Father.

Gotcha day--November 25, 2013

Olivia Ruth Bickel

Well, we finally got to meet Olivia in person today.  We started out the day with a meeting of about 9 families picking up children.  Some of them had >10 children, one family was picking up #18!!  We felt like rookies with only 3 kids so far!  After the meetings and some lunch, we arrived at the Civil Affairs office to pick Olivia up. They just call your name and bring your child out in the middle of a lobby.  So there are people everywhere with kids screaming, camera flashes going off, basically total chaos!  When it was our turn, Olivia came out looking very timid and shy and then when they gave her to us, she had a total meltdown...cried for about 90 minutes. We tried everything to distract her, the other kids tried as well, but she simply could not be consoled.  Elise got a little emotional and Olivia noticed that and started to calm down a bit and eventually made a little connection with Elise.  When we finally moved out of that room and started to head back to the hotel, she calmed down.  We showed her around the room, the kids tried to get her to play some games, but she was in a bit of shock and "shutting down".  During dinner, Scott got a half smile out of her, Nanette gave her a shower, and she seemed to be relaxing a bit.  We have no idea what to expect tonight, but wouldn't be surprised if she woke up screaming at 2am or slept until 9...who knows!  Thanks everyone for your prayers and support, please keep them coming.

Busride back to the hotel...3 Bickel girls.

Beijing

We arrived here on Thursday around 3pm local time (1am CST).  All of the children did great on the long flight, keeping busy with books, schoolwork, movies, and the rainbow loom (only those with elementary school kids likely know what that is).  We are staying with our good friend, Jenny, who recently moved here in September to work at a new rehabilitation hospital.  The next day we visited her work, Scott gave a lecture, and he got to reconnect with a visiting professor he had in 2010.  She now works at the new hospital with Jenny...is that a small world or what?!

First dinner in China with some tired kids!

Nanette and Jenny at Tiananmen Square (with a couple photo bombers!)

Day 2 was a big day.  First, it was Bryce's 11th birthday.  How many kids from Alabama can say that they spent their birthday in Beijing, climbed the great wall, visited Tiananmen square, ate Peking duck, and saw the Bird's Nest.  Now that's a full day! See a few pictures below...

 Family at the Great Wall

Happy 11th Birthday! 

Holding a plaque with his name and date stating he had climbed the Great Wall.

A picture of the crowd taking pictures of us.  Rock stars in China!

Why would you want this picture if you don't know us?

We had a nice visit in Beijing, really got a nice taste of life in China.  We rode the subway and buses, often having no room to breathe!  Monday 11/25 is our "Gotcha Day", the day we get Olivia, and become a family of 6.  We will try to post some pictures of it tomorrow.  

Here we go!

Olivia Ruth Bickel--get ready!

Many of you may know that we received a referral for Olivia Ruth, our 5 year old little girl, on August 9, 2013.  Since then, God has sped things up drastically.  We are heading out tomorrow, Wed, 11/20/2013, to bring her home.  We have been so humbled and touched by all the support and love that has been pouring out on us here recently and would love to tell you again how grateful we are!  From friends helping me decorate Elise and Olivia’s  room to organizing meals when we return, but the most touching has been all the prayer support we have received from our church and friends.  God has “moved mountains” to get us to China before the unexpected closure of the consulate on Dec. 5!  We received the call one week ago today to let us know that we have been approved to go and have a consulate appointment on Dec. 2.  We had all of our friends praying that we could bring Olivia home before Dec. 5 and He answered that prayer with a resounding YES!! 

Excited for a new sister!

God has provided for our family in such amazing ways throughout this adoption and it has been really amazing to watch His plan unfold.  He has provided in all ways: from the finances to the perfect timing for the kids school, so that they are not missing as much as we thought!  Then an added bonus is that we are blessed to visit our friend who lives in Beijing and encourage her.  God is so good!!  He has even taken care of the smallest needs from selling our GA/KY tickets that we bought months ago b/c it was on Bryce’s birthday (had to scramble for another present idea…) to providing, through a friend, an “ergo” carrier!  God’s hand has miraculously been intertwined in this whole adoption. 

So now the real story begins….  We meet our precious girl, Olivia, Monday, Nov. 25 and we bring her home on Dec 4!!  Here are some prayer needs:  safe travel, health of everyone, Olivia's heart to be comforted during this transition (God to give her peace, strength, comfort), smooth transition for all family, Benjamin specifically to have God continue his healing process and strengthen his bond with the family and to rise to the occasion as an older brother, wisdom for parenting and to support Olivia as well as Bryce, Elise and Benjamin in any way that they need, all processes to go smoothly (no bags lost, paperwork, appointments, etc.)  =).  Thanks and we will keep you posted on our adventure…

Testing 1,2,3

Trying to blog via email.

Long Over Due...

     It has been a long time… too long, so an update is definitely in order.  A lot of wonderful things have occurred since the last blog update.  The first interesting thing is our fundraising for adoption #2.  When we were in the process of adopting Benjamin, God provided abundantly through Nanette’s job, so when we started this process again, we figured that God would provide in the same way.  But as you know, God rarely does things the same way, right?  Shortly after we started this process, Nanette’s job took a turn and was not providing nearly as it had and sometimes, she had no work at all.  Because of this, she took on another PRN job with a different company to help with the funds.  After researching grants and fundraisers, we knew that God would provide for us some way.  We decided to participate in a project called Both Hands that serves an orphan and a widow.  We had a magnificent team that supported us by sending out letters to sponsor us to work on a widow’s home—doing some needed yard work, painting, fixing fences, etc.  With everyone on our team, we sent out over 600 letters and you might have been one of the recipients!  We had a great time on the day of the project w/ God’s hand evident throughout.  It was very touching to see so many people serving the Lord together to help our dear friend!  The sponsored money went into an account to assist us in the financial costs of our adoption.  Through this project, a matching grant, and some other smaller (but successful) fundraising, we were able to raise nearly $20,000!!  We are truly blessed by our friends and family that have made this possible and it is so humbling to be on the receiving end of such a huge blessing!  We LOVE to support others financially and for God to provide for us in this way is really difficult to express our gratitude in words.  Humbly, we have experienced God’s provision for His will in our lives!!

"Both Hands" day...The Greenes and Bickels

            To update you on the adoption front: we were “logged in“ (China’s approval to adopt a child) on 11/15/2013.  We thought that it would take 2-3 months to receive a referral.  We had our Both Hands project in May 2013, so we had the finances ready, but still no referral.  This period was a true test of patience and trusting of God to be in control of this whole process for us.  Honestly, it was very difficult emotionally, for me (Nanette J).  Finally, at the end of July, we received an email from our social worker asking what age we would be willing to accept.  We had planned all along for a child 0-4 years of age, but God suddenly changed Scott’s heart to be open to a 5 year old.  So we discussed this option and replied that we could handle 0-5 years old.  That night, she called and gave a referral of a beautiful 5-year old girl.  After some prayer and discussion, we accepted the referral on August 9, 2013!!  Since we had been logged in so long we received the next step extremely quick, in 12 days!  Now we are just waiting for travel approval.  We anticipate that our sweet Olivia Ruth Bickel will be brought home in about 2-3 months!

Olivia Ruth Bickel

            We plan on taking the whole family to bring Olivia home, so we are currently applying for visas, getting excused absenses approved, sending packages with pictures to her, as well as all the kids’ Fall sports are in full swing.  Bryce made the competitive travel soccer team for Briarwood, which has been fun experiences traveling around a little for soccer!  Elise is playing softball again, in a new league w/ kid pitch and stealing!  Benjamin is trying his “foot” in soccer with Scott as his head coach.  School is going well for all of them.  Scott is busy in his job at UAB with teaching and research, while Nanette has cut down from working 4 days to 2 days a week for family sanity!  We will try to do better at updates, since the real excitement is about to begin!!  Be in prayer for Olivia and her transition to our family.  

Birthdays...

Today is Benjamin's birthday...a day that most people enjoy having some cake, people treating us special and just celebrating.  However, for some, a birthday could be a reminder that you were abandoned, left for others to take care of.  So, should I celebrate or should I be sad?  Today started out a little rough with Benjamin, he was upset, pitched a fit for what we thought was no reason.  Could it be that he was thinking that there was nothing to celebrate?  Or could he be thinking that the person who gave birth to him had abandoned him?  I'm not sure, but it's possible...

 We are fortunate to have some baby pictures!

Here's what I think on Benjamin's birthday.  There are many things to celebrate.  Yes, your birth mother gave you up and you were raised in an orphanage for the first 3 1/2 years of your life...but we know that God had another plan for your life.  I'm thankful that in this day when a simple "medical procedure" could have ended your life that your birth mother loved you enough to give birth to you and let others raise you up.  That's a type of love that is often forgotten in today's society.  So when someone says, I don't see how a mother could "give up" her child...I say, that is a form of love that I'm thankful for...

Cute kid!

Benjamin, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.   Some families are put together in non-traditional means and ours is one of them.  You bring a unique aspect to our family and fill us with great joy!  You are a blessing to many and we are thankful that you were born.  While your birthday may bring back a painful memory, it will be a day that we always celebrate...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN!!